The Latin sense of traducere, "to lead along," came to mean exhibiting as a spectacle, disgracing. In English, it means to speak badly of a person to damage his or her reputation. From its Latin origins, it can mean to make a mockery of. It can mean to betray. Serious business.

Example: From William Cowper in the eighteenth century: "The man that dares traduce because he can with safety to himself, is not a man."

In the twentieth century, the playwright George S. Kaufman, after a long night of losing hands at poker, is supposed to have said that he had been trey-deuced.